Jim Jones Leads Jonestown Massacre
In the 1950s, Reverend Jim Jones started his Peoples Temple in Indianapolis, Ind. but later relocated the group to northern California. There, Jones attracted more followers and in the late 1970s, most of the group’s members accompanied Jones to Guyana, South America to establish Jonestown, an agricultural commune.In November 1977, Congressman Leo J. Ryan began to learn from newspapers and family members about misconduct at the commune, and “claims of social security irregularities, human rights violations and that people were being held against their will at ‘Jonestown’,” according to truTV.com. On Nov. 14, 1978, Ryan arrived in Guyana accompanied by journalists and concerned relatives of Jonestown members. Three days later, the group spoke with Jones and his followers. A number of Jonestown members indicated that they wanted to leave the commune. Ryan arranged for about 16 members to return to the U.S. with his group.At the airport on Nov. 18, “members of the Jonestown security unit shot and killed Ryan, three journalists and one defector as they attempted to leave an airstrip near the settlement on two planes,” injuring 10 others, according to the San Jose Mercury News. At 5 p.m., about the same time as the shooting, a mass suicide ensued at Jonestown. The official government report, submitted to Congress on May 15, 1979, indicated that more than 200 babies and young children were forced to drink poisonous cyanide first, and then the rest of the population followed. The guards shot many of the people who tried to oppose the suicide. An estimated 913 out of 1,100 people died, including Jones, though it is unclear whether he committed suicide or was shot. Some were able to escape into the jungle